Wilkinson &#39;still a force to be reckoned with&#39;: England manager

The West Australian

Thursday, 16 July 2009 10:36PM

Jonny Wilkinson, the injury-afflicted fly-half, will be as potent and productive for England over the coming years as he has ever been, according to Martin Johnson.

Wilkinson has had six years of torment since landing the dropped goal that won England the World Cup in 2003. Despite that, Johnson, the England manager, insisted: "I think he can be [as good as he's ever been]"

Johnson was speaking at Twickenham yesterday as he gave his first press conference since naming his elite squads for the upcoming season.

He drafted Wilkinson back into the senior squad last week even though the Toulon stand-off has not played since dislocating a kneecap playing for Newcastle last September.

"Experience is such a big part of being a good player,"said Johnson. "Potentially, Jonny could be at his peak. He just needs to get out there and play. He's had fitness assessments here, we spoke again only on Monday and he's raring to go"

Johnson dismissed suggestions that he was taking a risk in bringing Wilkinson straight back without any match-related evidence that his body can endure the battering routinely dished out in the modern game. Time and again, hopes have been raised in recent years with Wilkinson only for him to break down.

"You have fingers crossed for all the players,"said Johnson. "No one can assure you of anything. Injury can happen to any of them. But Jonny works as hard on his conditioning as any player I've ever known. The knee is as strong as it's ever been"

Johnson has chosen to promote Wilkinson ahead of the likes of Danny Cipriani, who was England's starting fly-half at the beginning of the autumn series last year before falling out of favour. Cipriani is now in the second-string Saxons squad. What swung it for Wilkinson, who has not played for 10 months?

"Well,"said Johnson, "two World Cup finals, 70-odd caps and X number of points did weigh in his favour slightly. Look, he's a world-class player"

Few would argue with that. And, despite the seeming snub to Cipriani, Johnson has already shown it is perfectly possible for players to interchange between squads.

Wilkinson will attend the week-long England training camp at Twickenham on Aug 9 before returning to Toulon, who begin their French championship campaign against Stade Francais on the weekend of August 14-15.

Former Wasps centre Riki Flutey is the only other French-based player in either of the elite squads. During the Lions tour he said he was confident that all the release dates had been agreed with his new club, Brive. Johnson, however, revealed that he is meeting Brive officials on Friday to iron out details on all the Brive-based English players, including fly-half Andy Goode, centre Jamie Noon and hooker Steve Thompson.

As for Cipriani, Johnson stressed again that the 21 year-old has to knuckle down and earn his place in the senior squad just as the likes of lock Nick Kennedy, flanker Lewis Moody and No?8 Luke Narraway do.

"Danny's a talented young player,"said Johnson. "But like a lot of young players he's got areas of strength and areas on which he needs to improve. They've now all got to prove us wrong. "

He also hinted that Cipriani and his peers had to realise that talent alone would not necessarily propel them back to the promised land.

"If it was just about training and playing it would be a lot easier,"said Johnson. "But the media attention is a lot bigger than it ever was and these guys have to deal with that. That's all part of Test match rugby"